Dollars for Scholars recipients ready for 'real world'

Thursday

Apr 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 25, 2013 at 10:48 AM

During the 2012-13 academic year, Marblehead Dollars for Scholars awarded 74 scholarships totaling $127,000 to local students pursuing college degrees. Among these scholarship recipients are three Marblehead High School graduates who received financial aid from the local nonprofit formerly known as Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of Marblehead throughout all four years of their college education.

Nancy Marrs

During the 2012-13 academic year, Marblehead Dollars for Scholars awarded 74 scholarships totaling $127,000 to local students pursuing college degrees.

Among these scholarship recipients are three Marblehead High School graduates who received financial aid from the local nonprofit formerly known as Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of Marblehead throughout all four years of their college education.

Ted Thomas, Sophie Enman and Tuzde Nazaire have overcome obstacles, worked hard and had some amazing experiences at their respective schools.

“I derive a sense of pride in seeing our students move along in their academic careers,” Marblehead Dollars for Scholars President Tom Despres said.

Because students must reapply for their scholarships each year and over the course of four years, the scholarship committee gets to know a lot about each applicant.

“In their cover letters we see how the student’s thinking and focus evolves over time,” explained Despres. “It’s gratifying to see their individual growth.”

Only weeks away from graduation, Thomas, Enman and Nazaire recently took time to reflect on their college education and on the value of their Marblehead Dollars for Scholars’ scholarship.

Ted Thomas

When Ted Thomas was a boy, someone told him he was good at arguing. For generations, his family had a history of studying the law, and when young Ted saw an exciting legal case on the television news, he knew he wanted to become an attorney.

His interest was fueled at MHS, where he was a member of the mock trial team that made it to the top eight in a statewide competition. However, his life changed drastically when his father died during his junior year of high school, and Thomas realized that he needed to stay close to home for college, for financial and family reasons.

Thomas enrolled at Suffolk University in Boston and due to his achievements in high school he was immediately offered the opportunity to study abroad in Spain. One of only 10 freshmen in Suffolk’s program, he lived with a host family, improved his Spanish and immersed himself in a foreign culture.

Thomas declared a government major with a specification in politics, law and the courts. He did well in his required classes and was challenged even more by courses in his major, such as “Court Systems” and “Comparative Politics and U.S. Law.”

He rekindled his passion for litigation by joining the Suffolk University mock trial team in his junior year and was a member of its executive board. The competition was tough and the commitment to the team demanding.

In September, the team would receive a case established by the American Trial Association, complete with exhibits and affidavits. The students devoted about 45 hours per week to practice and prepared a case on behalf of both the plaintiff and the defendant. Invitational rounds of competition served as a warmup for the regional tournament, which was held at the Suffolk Superior Courthouse. If a team made it to the top eight, they advanced to the nationals held in Pennsylvania and eventually to the final round in Washington, D.C.

During Thomas’ two years on the team, Suffolk advanced as far as the first round of nationals. “I got a lot more actual litigation practice than many people see in law school,” he explained.

The ambitious senior always worked hard to pay for his education, holding a work-study job at the school’s computer lab and a position at the New England Aquarium. This year, he’s interning at Rosencranz and Associates in Boston, a firm that specializes in personal-injury law.

Thomas has an interest in several different types of law. He’s built up a solid, professional network from his internship and through faculty at Suffolk, many of whom are practicing attorneys. He recently learned that he’s been accepted to Suffolk University’s Law School for a combined juris doctor degree and master’s of science in criminal justice.

Sophie Enman

Hours before many college students are even out of bed, Sophie Enman is at morning formation, saluting our flag on the parade field before her first class begins at 8 a.m. A senior at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Enman is one of approximately 40-50 women in her graduating class of 300 students.

Enman has an uncle who graduated from Maine Maritime Academy. She had always liked tinkering and figuring out how things work, and she loved math. The lure of travel and the high job placement rate were other reasons that led her to pursue a rigorous program in marine engineering at the Buzzard’s Bay school.

Enman had a less traditional college experience than most undergraduates. Academy students are largely from Massachusetts, and they work hard during the week and head home on the weekends. Enman has competed for the school’s cross-country team for four years, and she babysits in Marblehead on weekends to earn money.

Academically, Enman said her classes, on subjects such as municipal waste water, internal combustion engines and nuclear power, were quite challenging. But she loved her teachers and the very hands-on experience she received in labs, working with ship engines.

For Mass. Maritime students, the first and second years of study involve going out on sea term, where they spend two months training on a ship and travelling around the world. Ports of call during her second sea term included Mexico, Barbados and Puerto Rico, and students received two days’ liberty at each port.

During her junior year, Enman spent the winter term commercially shipping with Maersk Lines Ltd. She worked as a cadet engineer on the roll-on/roll-off vessel. Their mission was to transport new cars to the Middle East and to carry military equipment from Kuwait back to the United States.

She describes her commercial shipping term as “an awesome experience” on Alliance Charleston, which she boarded in Beaumont, Texas.

“All of the engineers on the ship wanted me to learn,” said Enman, who had one other female Mass. Maritime cadet with her on the journey.

Their ports of call included Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuwait.

“My days on the ship started at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m,” Enman recalled. “We performed routine maintenance on any and all machinery that called for it, and at night I would work on my six-credit project that had to be turned in upon return to school for the spring semester.”

Second Assistant Engineer of the Alliance Charleston Alex Armstrong wrote of Enman in a recommendation letter, “She has taken our busy schedule in stride and handled the rigors of sailing in the Middle East with aplomb. Cadet Enman shows great potential and will make a good engineering officer.”

During their senior year of college, cadets do one final sea term (Enman travelled to New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Aruba), and they get control of the academy ship, the T.S. Kennedy. Cadets split into two divisions and follow four-day rotations that involve watch, maintenance and training with the ship’s massive engines.

Attending Mass. Maritime Academy has been a richly rewarding experience for Enman. In May, she will sit for her Coast Guard license exam, which she is preparing for now. She plans to become a third assistant engineer on an oil rig or a supply vessel and will work her way up to second assistant, first assistant and hopefully chief engineer over time. Passing exams is a requirement for each promotion.

Enman already has a non-binding job offer from Military Sea Lift Command, a company that supplies Navy ships; however, she also plans to apply to Maersk Lines and other companies over the coming weeks.

Tuzde Nazaire

Tuzde Nazaire attended Marblehead Public Schools through the METCO program from the sixth through 12th grades. Growing up in Dorchester, she saw a lot of her friends fall in with the wrong crowd and get into trouble. Sometimes, she said, they weren’t even at fault.

“It was guilt by association,” she said.

While in high school, she took a summer job at a camp for urban youth and realized her interest in working with kids and understanding the psychology of why things happen the way they do for products of the inner city.

This led Nazaire to pursue a degree in criminal justice with a minor in psychology at Curry College. An incredibly hard worker who is paying her own way through college, she has held multiple jobs since the age of 16 and seems to thrive on living life at full throttle.

Over the course of four years in college, this skilled multi-tasker has worked at a sneaker store at the mall, the Curry College Bookstore and Dunkin Donuts. She’s been an orientation leader and resident assistant at Curry, a seasonal toll taker on the Mass. Pike and a server at Olive Garden. She even cuts the hair of classmates in her dorm room.

“I like moving fast and being busy, but this year has been the hardest,” admitted the outgoing senior.

In addition to her full course load and role as vice president of Curry’s hip-hop dance team, Multi Essence, Nazaire has completed two demanding internships during her senior year.

Last fall, she interned at the Dorchester Courthouse in the clerk magistrate’s office, where she did administrative work. During her second internship in the probation department of Suffolk Juvenile Court, she received valuable practical experience with the constituent group with whom she would like to work in the future.

In this position, she interviewed juvenile delinquents and others who have no criminal history, as well as parents who are concerned about the activities and behavior of their children.

She was recently involved in a situation where a mother wanted her son removed from the home, due to potentially violent behavior. Nazaire described it as a complex case that had to be referred to the Department of Children and Families.

Her goal is to obtain a position as a juvenile probation officer, but she also sees law school in her future.

“I’d like to go to Suffolk Law School part-time and eventually become a juvenile defense attorney,” reflected Nazaire.

And since she’s so highly motivated to achieve, she also plans to obtain her hairstyling license and pursue that hobby as a side job.

Next month, Nazaire will become the first member of her family to go straight from high school to a four-year college and graduate.

“I am proud of myself,” she concluded. “I’m happy I made it this far.”

Importance of scholarships

Financing a college education is a major challenge for most people, and Marblehead families are no exception. Costs rise at most schools on a yearly basis, and students and their parents are taking on increased debt.

Thomas said his first years at Suffolk University were particularly tough to swing financially.

“If it weren’t for this scholarship, especially during my first and second year, paying for college would have been a huge issue,” he said.

He noted that the debt he will graduate with would be much higher, if not for Marblehead Dollars for Scholars’ financial assistance.

“A lot of my friends are talking about how much they’ll owe when they graduate, and I’m able to say that I’ve had all this support from my town with this scholarship,” Enman reflected. “It’s been a great help.”

Added Nazaire, “It’s been cool to have support from the town I went to school in. It’s good to know they have my back, and I appreciate that.”

Beyond tuition, room and board, mandatory fees, books and even gas for commuters, all add up to a heavy financial burden made even harder for families with multiple college-age children.

“Because our funds are limited, we can only do so much, and there is always unmet need for students that we can’t fill,” explained Marblehead Dollars for Scholars President Despres. “I feel the largest impact we have is to help reduce the amount students need to borrow to attend college and limit the impact of repaying loans as they begin their careers.”

Over the past 25 years, the non-profit organization has accumulated an endowment fund of over $1.6 million. Despres believes it is a tremendous asset to Marblehead students, provides ongoing funds for current and future scholarships and is a tribute to the generosity of Marblehead citizens.

The challenge that lies ahead for Marblehead Dollars for Scholars is to build on the tradition of generosity that’s been established and to continue to increase its endowment for future generations, according to Despres.

The students profiled in this story are only three of 14 scholarship recipients who will graduate in May, and the organization’s board of directors has high hopes for all of its senior awardees.

“I wish them success in their chosen careers, but beyond that I hope they carry away a sense of community spirit that helped in their college funding,” said Despres. “Whether they settle in Marblehead or another place, I hope they remember to give back and extend a hand to help others along the way.”

Nancy Marrs is a member of the Marblehead Dollars for Scholars Board of Directors.